of having a King may further appear we may consider that there is a near Relation betwixt a King and his People for he is not only the Political Father of them nourishing them protecting them abundantly providing for their welfare and carefully tending them as a natural Father doth his own Children but he is even the very Breath of their nostrils the Soul that actuates and enlivens the whole body of the Commonwealth the Spring and Principle of motion by which his Subjects do as it were breath and live without which they would be but as a dead and breathless Carkass There is a close connexion betwixt him and them insomuch that his life his welfare and prosperity is of great concern to them all From Him we enjoy many benefits to Him we are obliged next under God for divers great comforts and conveniences of life in consideration of which that character which the Word of God hath given him of the Breath of our Nostrils may hold good For from Him we have the administration of publick Justice distributed throughout the Land and brought home to our very Doors 'T is He who deputes his Ministers wise grave and pious Men and sends them abroad to see that they who suffer wrong have right done them Insomuch that in every Court of Judicature we may imagine that we behold the King Himself forasmuch as that we see His Representative sitting before us speaking unto us and giving us the explanation and sence of his own Laws Without him the good and wholesome Laws of the Land by which our lives our fortunes our Priviledges our Religion are secured would be of no use to us 'T is He who gives life unto them that puts them in force that orders his Officers to see them duly executed and observed which if He should not do they would signifie but little could not in truth avail us any thing To Him we are indebted for the discouragement of wickedness and correction of Vice for a King that sitteth in the Throne of Judgment as every King doth either in his own Person or representatively by his Deputy scattereth away all evil with his eyes and a wise King scattereth the wicked and bringeth the wheel over them To Him we stand ingaged for the benefit of Order and Peace for the preservation of our just rights for the great advantages of that comfortable Society we enjoy with each other Upon Him depends the stability and welfare of the State He sustaining the Government of it He hearing up the Pillars of it He effecting its Prosperity promoting its Trade advancing its Wealth preserving its tranquillity He by his care and vigilance protecting it from ruine by intestine broils by his Arms and Forces vindicating its Honour from received affronts by his management and conduct guarding its safety from the injuries and wrongs of our foreign foes So truly may that complement of Tertullus to Felix the Governour in the Acts of the Apostles be apply'd to the King seeing that by Thee we enjoy great quietness and that very worthy deeds are done unto this Nation by thy Providence we accept it always and in all places most noble Felix with all thankfulness Upon Him especially and upon his prosperity doth the safety and well-being of the Church deend It hath been an old but true saying No King no Bishop Take away the King and you go the ready way to ruine the Church They mutually support and sustain each other they consequently must stand and fall together Besides if the Kings Affairs do not thrive and prosper neither can the Affairs of the Church if his Arms be not victorious if his Empire be disturbed His State disorder'd and His Throne but once shaken or weakned the Church cannot but at the same time be in distress and partake of the shock We are therefore commanded to pray for Kings that in the peace and quietness of their Reign we may live in all godliness and honesty Without publick peace and quietness godliness and honesty the promoting of which is the great business and design of the Church cannot well be upheld and without the King publick peace and quietness cannot be had It was a peculiar blessing promised by God to his Church that Kings should be the nursing Fathers and their Queens the nursing Mothers of it The good effect of which most gracious promise we of this Church do at this day find God having set over us a King through whose indulgence our Church is nourished and supported Now upon these accounts all Sovereign Kings and Princes may be very properly styled as our Saviour hath called them Benefactors for so they really are in an eminent degree a good King without controversie is so doing good and seeking the good of his People and speaking peace to all the Land and even a bad King may in like manner be called a Benefactor for that even under Him Order and Government is upheld and though it sometimes happen that under a bad King good Men may suffer yet so do the bad too so that they cannot do the villanies they otherwise most gladly would For these Reasons all Kings are as in Scripture language they are said to be the Light and the Horn the Stay and the Staff of their Subjects and for these Considerations every King is the breath of their Peoples nostrils so close a connexion so near a Relation is there betwixt Him and them Whence we may undeniably conclude that a Nations having of a King must needs be a considerable Happiness a very great Blessing to it 3. For the farther confirmation of which we may add that God Almighty for the security of a Nations happiness in the enjoyment of their King hath by many good Laws provided for the preservation of his Person from harm and violence making it sinful and damnable for any of his Subjects to resist him or to lift up an hand with a design to hurt him or so much as but to speak or think any evil against him And again for the punishment of a wicked People God oftentimes taketh away their King from them depriving them thereby of the blessings they enjoy'd by him suffering Him for their great affliction to fall into sad misfortunes as was the case of King Josiah of old and of late the Royal Father of our present Sovereign And how great an infelicity how dreadful a judgment it is for a Nation to have its King violently cut off and to be deprived of its Kingly Government your selves the Kingdom the whole World doth sadly know There are doubtless many at this time living and some perhaps in this very Congregation that cannot but remember what this Nation suffer'd when its Kingly Government was destroy'd For in those days barbarous and cruel Men glutted themselves with the slaughter of their Neighbours and still went on insatiably thirsting after more Bloud common Bloud Noble Bloud Royal Bloud In those days the Loyal Gentry were plunder'd
sequestred imprison'd and banished by their own Fellow-subjects In those days the refuse and baser sort of the Multitude enriched themselves with the spoils of Nobles and took possession of their Estates In those days the common People were enslaved and ridden on by those that unjustly took upon them to be Lords over them In those days unlawful Oaths and Covenants were obtruded by those that had no lawful power to impose them In those days it was when the Priviledges of Parliaments the Rights of the People the Intentions of the Laws were no otherwise preserved than by the breach and violation of them when the whole Land was miserably squeez'd and taxed without any just Authority when the true face of a Church was disfigured and a medley of Sects tolerated in the room of it when Religion was made a covert for the blackest crimes and the most horrid Murther that ever the Sun beheld approved of applauded and defended for the most pious Act. In those days it was when the Orthodox Clergy were turned out of their Livings and the Houses of God could no longer be Sanctuaries unto them when the Common-Prayer-Book the surest means of Uniformity in the Publick Worship of God was exploded and Men left at liberty to pray by the Spirit that knew not what manner of Spirit they were of In those days Sacriledge was accounted no Sin Killing no Murther Extortion no Robbery nor any injustice to those that were vilified by the Name of Malignants esteem'd unlawful And what was the cause I beseech you of all these things but that the Crown of our Head was fallen but that the Light of the Nation was quenched but that the breath of our Nostrils was intercepted but that the Anointed of the Lord was taken in the Pits of bloody Men for when I cannot well say we had no King for the King of England in a Political sense never dies the next in blood immediately succeeding as soon as ever the breath is out of the body of the other but when one King was Murthered and another Banished then it was that these Barbarities were perpetrated those were the days wherein every man did that which was right in his own eyes and from that cause arose such deformity in the Church and such disorder in the State Nor could affairs be brought into any good posture till the Kingdom after it had been tossed and turn'd and changed into several shapes and figures was through God's great Mercy and great Providence reduced again into its ancient form of Kingly Government till God was gracious unto our Land and turn'd again the captivity of his People till the King and the whole Royal Family and with them all our happiness were restored together Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with joy then mercy and truth met together righteousness and peace kissed each other truth did then flourish out of the Land and righteousness looked down from Heaven Light did then spring out of Darkness and the course of things turned into their right Channel in which may they successfully continue till time shall be no more May we never again be so unhappy as to see such gloomy days as those were wherein we had no King amongst us may all those Republican Spirits be laid and charm'd to perpetual silence that would Hurry us again into our former thraldome May the enemies of our Peace be for ever as much defeated in their desires as they have been in their designs since Monarchy was restored to us May there never want one of the Royal Progeny to sway the Scepter of these Kingdoms in a Lineal course of descent so long as the World shall stand in which most hearty wishes I am sure to have you my Noble Lords and Gentlemen and all true lovers of the prosperity of their Country to joyn with me III. Having thus done with the two first things proposed to be discoursed upon I shall now proceed in the Third and last place to make Application by propounding to you the Practical influence arising from both 1. And first we cannot but conceive from what hath been hitherto said that it becomes our duty to bless Almighty God for these happy days wherein we live for that we are not involved in Anarchy and Confusion but that we live through His gracious mercy and good appointment under an happy Government wherein as there is no dispensation for Men to live at random no encouragement allow'd of for every man to do what is right in his own eyes so there is the greatest excitement afforded to virtue and goodness a Government under which we may enjoy as much freedom and liberty as reasonable Men can desire to have wherein we are not burthened with any unjust unreasonable or intolerable Impositions wherein things are carried fairly and moderately without Tyrannical or Arbitrary proceedings and wherein we have the establishment of such Laws as may be hugely beneficial and advantagious to us all For that also we are under the Government of a King not in a popular State or Commonwealth wherein many Lords would have the rule over us but that we are governed by a King whom experience hath made wise whom sharp Trials and great Persecutions have inured to business a King who is the Son of Nobles deriving his descent through a long Succession of many Royal Ancestors upon which account we may expect a blessedness will attend our Land for blessed saith Solomon art thou O Land when thy King is the Son of Nobles a King endow'd with a Noble and Heroick mind free from base and sordid inclinations and that hath professed himself averse to all exorbitances and debauchery and will not therefore we may be sure countenance it in his Subjects a King under whose shadow as we do already enjoy great Priviledges the freedom of our Religion the protection of our Church the Security of the State as now by Law established so we may depend upon his Royal promise who is the greatest Example of justness and constancy to his word for the long continuance of them within such a Government under such a King we may and do enjoy great happiness Which things being duly considered we cannot but think it our first duty to return to God the tribute of our humble and hearty praises who is the Author not only of our being but of our being happy We cannot but take notice that it is mention'd in Scripture as a special mark of God's love and delight in the prosperity of a People when he gives them a wise and a good King to reign over them in consideration of which it was that the Queen of Sheba pronounced the Subjects of King Solomon happy Happy saith she are thy men happy are these thy Servants which stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom and blessed be the Lord thy God which delighted in thee to set thee on the Throne of Israel because the Lord loved
AN Assize-Sermon Preached in the CATHEDRAL-CHURCH OF St. PETER in YORK March the 8th 1685 6. Before the Right Honourable Sir EDWARD NEVILL AND Sir HENRY BEDINGFIELD His Majesties Justices of Assize FOR THE NORTHERN CIRCUIT By CHRISTOPHER WYVILL Fellow of Trinity College in Cambridge and Chaplain to His Grace the DUKE of ORMOND LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's-Head in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1686. To the Right Worshipful CHRISTOPHER TANCKRED Esq High Sheriff of the County OF YORK Dear Sir YOU Having laid upon me a necessity of publishing This Sermon I have at last comply'd therewith though I cannot conceive what could induce You to have been so earnest with me in This particular unless it were the design of its composure which being to perswade men to be true and obedient to the establish'd Government it might upon That account the more easily meet with a favourable acceptance from You whose constant Loyalty to the Crown and unshaken stedfastness to the Church of England have gain'd You not only the love and esteem of all good men but the particular Favour of Your Royal Master His Most Sacred Majesty of which He hath given the World a sufficient instance by continuing You High Sheriff of so large a County this Second Year an Honour granted to few and an Office which none can execute better That God Almighty may be graciously pleas'd to bless You so as that You may still do Him and the King more Service is the Hearty Prayer of Your most Affectionate Uncle and Humble Servant CHRIS WYVILL IMPRIMATUR Apr. 19. 1686. Ex Aedibus Lambeth Io. Battely Reverendissimo Patri ac D no D no Wilhelmo Archiep. Cantuar. Ã Sacris Domesticis JUDGES xvii 6. In those days there was no King in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes WE have in this Chapter and in the rest that follow to the end of this book the history of what befel the Children of Israel immediately after the death of Joshua and of the Elders that were contemporary with him wherein we meet with several irregularities and disorders that were then brought in amongst them with a great corruption in their Religion instanced in the Idolatry of Micah and afterwards set up and established by the Tribe of Dan which occasion'd a large Division and Schism of a long continuance with a general depravation of their manners exemplified in the prodigious lust of the Gibeonites where we have their sin of a monstrous nature in forcing the Levites Concubine to death and the punishment ensuing thereupon inflicted by the rest of Israel even to the cutting off of almost the whole Tribe of Benjamin The cause of all which the Holy Ghost hath no less than four times set down to be their want of a King for in those days there was no King in Israel no supreme Ruler that had the management of publick affairs no Chief Governour to keep the People in mind of their duty no setled Magistrate to take cognizance of evil doers and to put the Laws in execution against Offenders or to confer rewards upon them that did well for Joshua was dead in whole days we are told they forsook the Lord and the Elders were dead that had known all the works of the Lord that he had done for Israel and by their countenance and Authority upheld things in a good posture and the Government under the extraordinary power of particular Judges was not as yet erected There being therefore no publick Person that had the sâ—le power over the whole Community then it was that every man did that which was right in his own eyes by which manner of speech may be understood whatsoever disorder in the worship of God whatsoever misdemeanour in common conversation a rude multitude without an Head to guide and govern them might be guilty of whatsoever distraction and confusion either in Church or State a Nation not having a lawful Governour to support and protect it may be liable unto And thus much being premised by way of Introduction to the Text from the words thus explain'd I shall propound to your consideration and through God's assistance endeavour to press home to all our Consciences three things I. The Benefits of Government II. The Happiness of a Nation that hath a King III. The Practical influence arising from both I. In prosecution of the first of these I shall not trouble either you or my self by comparing one sort of Government with another or giving my opinion which ought to have the preheminence I speak to those that have the happiness to live under the Government of a King and shall therefore take it for granted that it is the best and in speaking upon such a Government I shall have respect chiefly to This under which we live It was for want of Government among the Children of Israel that things went so ill amongst them that every man did that which was right in his own eyes If they had had a King Government would have been preserved That Government would have kept the state of affairs in a good condition and prevented the mischiefs and evils that might arise from every mans doing what was right in his own eyes Now the benefits of Government may be considered in reference First 1st To every particular private Man who in a well constituted Kingdom setled upon good Laws and administred by lawful Magistrates may receive great advantages He may keep what is his own with quietness and immunity without disturbance or distraction He may reap the benefit of his own labours eat the fruits of his own Vine and of his own Fig-tree and drink the Waters of his own Cistern in happiness and peace He may serve and worship God in publick according to the will of God which is the greatest priviledge a Man can have upon Earth with security and chearfulness Liberty and property which are so much in every Mans mouth the desire of every Mans heart things in themselves most excellent and useful he may in great measure enjoy provided that he keeps himself within the compass of the Laws which are the great conservatives of them both If his Goods be invaded by violence and oppression if his good Name be called into question his Reputation injured by evil reports or his Life in danger through malicious suggestions and false accusations in such cases he hath the Government on his side to protect him to clear him to do him right and justice What the Town-Clerk of Ephesus said in the Acts of the Apostles concerning That City may as well be said of every good Government if Demetrius and the Craftsmen that are with him have a matter against any man the Law is open and there are Deputies let them implead one another It is free for every Man to sue for what is his own to seek redress of injuries received and to urge what he can in his own defence Every Man may have a
are the true Sons of it who can never be unfaithful to Him so long as they are true to it to dissent from which Church either on the one hand or on the other will be a lessening of the number of the Kings fast friends We cannot turn to the Church of Rome without denying a part of the King 's governing Power that is His Supremacy in all Causes and over all Persons within his own Dominions We cannot side with the Phanaticks but we must hold Seditious Principles and Doctrines destructive of Government such as are Dominion is founded in Grace the King is major singulis but minór universis the King may be resisted and deposed if he doth not govern as the People would have him the safety of the People is the Supreme Law which if taken in a good sence may be true but otherwise is false and dangerous and many the like pernicious Opinions which are to be found in Buchanan's jus regni apud Scotos and Baxter's Holy Common-wealth and in several of the Non-conformists Writings all which the Church of England abhors and condemns And therefore let not the specious insinuations of the one Party nor the pretended zeal of the other prevail with us to forsake the best constituted Church that is at this day in the whole Christian World let it be seen to all the World that we can be true at the same time both to our Church and our King 6. And lastly that God may be graciously inclin'd to bless the King and the King's Dominions let us make it our business to lead religious and holy lives without which we cannot expect that either He or we shall prosper Let us often consider these places of Scripture and lay them seriously to our hearts If ye will fear the Lord and serve Him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord then shall both ye and the King that reigneth over you continue following the Lord your God but if ye shall still do wickedly ye shall be consumed both ye and your King And again Righteousness exalteth a Nation but sin is a reproach to any People Again Take away the wicked from before the King and his Throne shall be established in righteousness From all which places and many others of the like nature we may plainly see how much publick evil a wicked conversation may be the cause of how much publick good a Godly life may promote We are generally too apt to impute the ill success and miscarriage of things to the wrong measures of our Governours to the ill management of the King or the ill advice of his Councellors little in the mean time considering how much the grievousness of our sins may be the cause of them whereby God is provoked to take vengeance on us in that way who oftentimes punisheth a wicked People by withdrawing from their King the grace and conduct of his Holy Spirit by blasting his good endeavours by suffering him to incur great misery and trouble What can we imagine was the cause that moved God to visit this Land with a long unnatural civil War that provoked him to suffer so great a breach to arise betwixt the King and his People till they had ruin'd themselves and their King by their own hands what I say can we think to have been the cause of it but the crying sins of the Nation so true is that saying of Saint James Whence come Wars and fightings amongst you come they not hence even of the lusts that war in your members And may we not fear that that great impiety that prodigious licentiousness that vile profaneness that horrid blasphemy that scandalous neglect of God's publick worship which are great sins now too rife amongst us may if not timely repented and amended of bring down upon us the like heavy judgments how justly may that of Isaiah be laid to our charge Ah sinful Nation a People laden with iniquity a Seed of evil doers Children that are corrupters they have forsaken the Lord they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to Anger they have gone away backward And is this the way to do the King service Is this the means whereby to express our loyalty to him and to obtain the blessing of God upon Him No surely if we love the King and would have Him reign prosperously over us we must then make a thorough reformation of our lives and become good Christians that we may be good Subjects We can hardly do a greater disservice to the King than by living unanswerably to the Rules of our holy Religion They are the intemperate and the debaucht Persons the common horrid swearers and the great neglecters of the publick worship of God that let them boast never so much of their Loyalty are the greatest enemies the King hath forasmuch as through their sins God may be provoked to punish Him Wherefore let us all begin to repent and amend our lives and then we may hope that God will bless Him and us Let us have the fear of God before our eyes and then we shall be the better enabled to Honour the King Then we may reasonably expect that things will succeed well both in Church and State when our conversation is as it becometh the Gospel of Christ. Let us therefore fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all our heart for consider how great things God hath done for us For a farther encouragement to all which let us often reflect upon the Glories and Happiness of the Kingdom of Heaven where all good Subjects that have faithfully served God and the King shall be rewarded with eternal felicity where no Rebels without severe and sincere repentance shall ever come where all good Kings for an earthly Diadem shall receive an immarcessible Crown of Glory and be for ever happy in the beatifick vision and fruition of the King of Kings To which most glorious Kingdom God of his infinite mercy bring our King with all his Subjects through the Merits of the King of Glory to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost three Persons and one God be ascribed by you and by me and by all our Fellow-creatures all Honour Glory and Power both now and for evermore Amen FINIS Jud◠7. 6. 18. 1. 19. 1. 21. 25. Josh. 24. 31. ii Kings 18. 31. Act. 19. 38. Rom. 13. 3 4. Judg. 2. 19. Prov. 20. 8. Prov. 20. 26. Act. 24. 2 3. 1 Tim. 2. 2. Luke 22. 25. Lament 5. 16. 2 Sam. 21. 17. Lament 4. 20. Psal. 126. 1. Psal. 126. 2. Lament 4. 20. 1 Kings 10. 8 9. 1 Sam. 12. 14. 1 Sam. 12. 25. Prov. 14. 34. Prov. 25. 5. Jam. 4. 1. Isai. 1. 4. 1 Pet. 2. 17. Philip. 1. 27. 1 Sam. 12. 24.